We are excited to talk to you
today about Pados, the first private social network for the neighbourhood.
We are a relatively new entity that sits at the intersection of
two large and important trends in our industry: social and local. Over the next few posts, we will show you
the actual app and its uses in real neighbourhoods.
First, a little bit about what inspired the idea and why we
think it is such a meaningful opportunity.
Therefore, we all know that social networks have become
ubiquitous and mainstream. They have enormous user bases, over 2 billion users of Internet using Internet
in one way or other. It is clear that we have begun to rely on social networks
for almost all parts of our lives. We rely on Facebook to keep us connected to
friends and family. We rely on Twitter to follow topics and people that
interest us. In addition, we rely on LinkedIn to manage our professional
identities.
It turns out that the neighbourhood is one of the original
social networks. There is a large body of research, led by Harvard
Professor Robert Putnam that shows the tangible benefits of having a social
network in a neighbourhood. What is interesting about Putnam’s quote here is
that it is from the year 2002. Therefore, he is not talking about the online
social networks that have become mainstream today. He is talking about the
real world connections that we have with our neighbours, in our neighbourhoods.
Unfortunately, we seem to have lost touch with the neighbourhood. We
estimate that less than 1 in 10 Indians know their neighbours and less than 28%
know none of their neighbours by name. While there are plenty of online
services that can connect us to people everywhere, there does not seem to be
anything that will connect us to the people right outside our front door. That
is where Pados comes in. We believe we can bring back a sense of community to
the neighbourhood.
We believe we can take the best practices of social networking
and apply them to the real world community of the neighbourhood. It is an
obvious idea and there are tremendous benefits.
So why hasn’t anyone done
this before? Why has not anyone used technology to help us build stronger neighbourhoods?
I I will write a bout in some later
post.
For now, it is just suffice
to know that Pados helps bring back a sense of community to the neighbourhood.
Go ahead; we have a free download for your Android -<Link>
